Decided on a Camera?

[Indien]

OK, so after pouring over many past camera discussions on indietalk, I have basically decided what camera to get.

I think I am going with the Panasonic DVX100B.

Does anyone have any compelling reasons not to get this camera? I had been considering the Canon XH-A1, but have mostly decided against it because the additional features do not justify the added cost (personally).

I do not think shooting in HD is that important right now, at this beginning stage of my "career". On the other hand, the low-light performance and native 16:9 (which from my understanding is important when projecting to a large screen) were appealing in the A1. But I believe the DVX100B will have what I need to pursue my interests (documentary, music video, and non-profit informational material).

So basically I am looking for the final opinions on the DVX100B from the knowledgeable members out there.

Also, are there any foreseeable compatibility issues between this camera and a Mac with FCP?

Thanks in advance for your insight

 

[Will Vincent]

OK, so after pouring over many past camera discussions on indietalk, I have basically decided what camera to get.

I think I am going with the Panasonic DVX100B.

Does anyone have any compelling reasons not to get this camera?

Nope.. the DVX is a GREAT camera.

I had been considering the Canon XH-A1, but have mostly decided against it because the additional features do not justify the added cost (personally).

I do not think shooting in HD is that important right now, at this beginning stage of my "career". On the other hand, the low-light performance and native 16:9 (which from my understanding is important when projecting to a large screen) were appealing in the A1. But I believe the DVX100B will have what I need to pursue my interests (documentary, music video, and non-profit informational material).

Please, PLEASE use lights whenever you can. Visual imagery is created with -- LIGHT. Just because can turn on a video camera and see an image doesn't mean you should shoot in the dark. Video and film cameras do not have anywhere near the range or sensitivity of the human eye, so you should ALWAYS (unless physically impossible) light your shots properly.

So basically I am looking for the final opinions on the DVX100B from the knowledgeable members out there.

Also, are there any foreseeable compatibility issues between this camera and a Mac with FCP?

None. The DVX is completely compatible with final cut.

 

[Indien]

Thanks so much Will, I am glad the DVX100B gets your vote of confidence.

As far as lighting goes, it is certainly something I need to learn more about. I have found some good links and information on IndieTalk so far that have been helpful. I just want to make sure I get a camera that has decent low light capability for potential documentary use involving on-sight filming in unsecure areas, where I will not have the opportunity to light the shots.

Also, thanks for eliminating my compatibility concerns, you've been a big help.

 

[Indien]

One more question about the DVX.....

I am very interested in using time-lapse footage in my projects, and I am wondering how well the minimum (1/24 sec) and maximum (1/2000 sec) shutter speeds will work out, particularly the minimum shutter speed.

The accelerated time lapse shots would be things like sunsets/sunrises, moving traffic, city streets etc.

The slow mo would mostly be people walking, running (not necessarily sprinting), and just small clips of everyday things.

From my understanding I will just eat up lots of tape for accelerated time-lapse shots, and I may not have the smoothest of slow mo for scenes with real-time fast action.

I would love some thoughts and opinions on this topic, and how much of an issue it will be for my camera purchase decision

 

[Will Vincent]

I answered you in the PM about this, but thought I'd paste my reply here too so others can see and add anything I missed..

I must stress that sped up footage is NOT time lapse, and it won't ever look quite right because timelapse has a distinct look, and just speeding up footage several hundred percent looks just like that -- footage that's been sped way up. That said, I think your best bet for timelapse would be to do it with a still camera.

Ideally you'd have a digital camera hooked up to a laptop running some software that will fire off a shot once every minute or whatever you set for your interval, then you bring those into your timeline and set them up so each image is the length of a single frame. I know there is software for the PC that will let you do that with a video camera, it'll add a single frame to the video file once each X seconds -- up to a certain limit. There may or may not be similar software for the mac, but I'm not a mac guy, so I don't know.

At any rate, the bonus of doing this with a still camera is that if you use a high megapixel camera, the images will be much larger than the viewport, so you could use keyframes to animate a pan or tilt during the timelapse shot. It would make for a very high production value shot.

As for slow motion, you'd want to use a high shutter speed with a higher frame rate. So rather than shooting footage intended to be slow motion at 24p, you could shoot it in standard 60i, then convert the 60 interlaced fields to 60 progressive frames (knightly wrote a nice tool in applescript that will handle that for you).. then when you add that to a 24p timeline you'll have footage that is running a little slower than 1/2 speed. Since 48 frames would be half speed, 60 frames would make it 1/2.5 speed. Good smooth slow motion.

Search the forum, I know knightly had an example video a while back that he had posted. His was based on a 30fps timeline rather than 24p, but it'll give you an idea anyway.

Aside from that... I HIGHLY recommend that you pick up a copy of the DV Rebel's Guide by Stu Maschwitz. It's targeted at doing a really high end action movie on the cheap, but most if not all of the information applies to any kind of filmmaking, even documentary. He also does a very good job of covering what frame rates and shutter speeds you need to use to achieve the most filmic look, and why.. as well as talking about shooting footage for slow motion with cameras that don't let you set a high frame rate... lots of other good stuff too. It really is a must have book for anyone interested in low budget film production no matter what the genre. I can't recommend it highly enough.

 

[spinner]

I think you will probably like the DVX.

It is light, its easy to handle without a tripod, which was what I was looking for when I got my 100a.

It does do well in low light as well. You will need a good shotgun mic because the on camera mic is not going to be what you want. I use the Audio Technica AT835B. If you are going to get a good camera, get a good mic.

Have fun! I am using my camera for the same thing you are, documentary and some video work...

-- spinner